"I will forever live by my mantra of "I only want to win twice." Granted, there is some arrogance is asking to win a second time. Many fans never seen the team win the one time. But contrast my contentness of where the Astros have been vs. my constant incoherent, dawdling and dreading around the post-2006 career Peyton Manning"
Well, after my Astros threw away a World Series appearance by not being able to win one single home game in a 7-game series, getting blown out shamefully in Game 6-7 at home - well, let's just say I'm putting that theory very much to the test.
But weirdly, I think my reaction to that loss is only more reinforced by living through that and, in the end, not really caring. Would I have prefered them not get embarassed - well of course I would have. But I got my two. I still have those two. And of course, I can still fall back on the "Seven Straight Years" of it all. Also, if we win too much, then we become even more the Patriots - and I don't like that. I don't like the inherent arrogance that comes with that, even if person to person there isn't too much arrogance.
The Astros are more akin to my Devils growing up - good every year, won our share of titles (three Cups, though only two I actually remember), but also good enough to get beat enough that there were some scars. And I think that's the amazing dichotomy of this Astros run. They're just always there, but for a team that is always there, they have some curious, sullen losses.
For a quick recap:
= They lost an ALCS 1-4 in 2018 despite out-hitting Boston, but they couldn't string together hits for their life. They also lost all three home games after splitting the first two in Boston
= They lost a World Series in 2019, just like they did this past ALCS, where the road team won every game. Unlike 2023 when they were blown out of Game 6-7, in 2019 they actually led both games through five innings, but late homers from starters probably left in too long did them in (also not scoring more than 1 run in the first five innings of Game 7 when they got guys on every inning...)
= They lost a World Series in 2021 to an 88-win Braves team, including getting shutout in game 6 at home in an elimination game, a game where they literally never really threatened.
= Overall, they are 2-3 in Game 7s, winning their first two in 2017, but losing 2019 WS, 2020 ALCS, 2023 ALCS
But how could I attack that team. Forgot about the myriad successes that I'll state shortly, but even within that litany of losing, there's a lot of incredible moments and challenging narratives. For instance, those two series where the road team won every game - while of course we should criticize Houston for blowing the first two games at Home, and even more be critical of them losing the last two at home, but also shouldn't we too credit them for having the mental reserve to go on the road and win three straight when the opponent has a huge edge.
The micro-example of this we just saw - with Altuve's incredible home run to cap the game 5 rally. That was poise, that was experience, that was all of that rolled into one play. Is that lessened by then them collapsing the next two games?
My other go-to for this is their other Game 7 loss - the 2020 ALCS, where they lost pretty meekly in Game 7 to a much better (for that season) Rays team, but should we not remember that they crawled back from a 0-3 hole, including a stirring walk-off win in Game 4?
And of course, let's get to the opposite side of things - wherein in this same stretch:
= Let's get this out of the way first, they've won two World Series!
= They've gone an unconsciable 13-1 at home in the ALDS (of course, the one loss being this year when they end the season a dreadful 40-47....)
= After getting pummeled for 6 home runs in the band-box that is Citizen's Bank last year in Game 3 of the World Series, they responded by winning the next two games in Philadelphia, including throwing the second no-hitter in World Series history
= Similarly in the 2021 ALCS, after falling behind 2-1 to Boston, including a 12-3 loss in Game 3, they responded by winning the next three 9-2 (after being down 2-1 after seven), 9-1 and 5-0, with a 2-hitter of Boston in the clincher
= In the 2019 ALCS, they went to Yankee Stadium, the place they lost all three games in teh 2017 ALCS, and won Game 3-4 to take a 3-1 lead
= Oh yeah, and did I mention that they won two freaking World Series!
The plusses of the ledger are so far and away ahead of the minuses in this equation. And in the end that's what I'll continue to be happy about. In these seven years, they've reached the ALCS each time. They've also then gone 4-3 (so above .500) in those ALCS's, and then 2-2 in the subsequent World Series. While sure I guess this is not some all time run, I don't care - it is more than enough for a long damn time. As I mentioned in my "Seven Straight Years" post, combine this with their 2004-05 NLCS appearances, they've made the LCS nine times in the last 20 years - the most in baseball (let's just not talk about the nine years of 2006-2014).
Baseball is a great game and it isn't meant to be dominated by teams that string off World Series titles. That happened a lot in the pre-Free Agency days, but since the 70s, we had the Big Red Machine (two straight), the Reggie Jackson A's (three straight), the early-90s Jays (two straight) and then the Dynasty Yankees (three straight). That's teh extent of teams to win consecutive championships. My Astros probably won't join that list, but they gave me two, they gave me a bunch of other amazing memories. Yes, some awful ones as well, but at the end the good ones outweigh the bad, I got my two titles to celebrate, and we may still not be done.
